How to Get Big and Stay Lean

A Real World Approach to Carb Cycling

As I promised in a previous article, I will now talk about the method I recommend for increasing lean muscle mass while maintaining body fat. Please note that this method is highly effective and should be used by lifters that are already pretty lean. If you need to loose a lot of weight, you should diet down first. If you need to gain a lot of weight (greater than 15 lbs), you should focus on taking in more calories. This approach is perfect for the trainee who is looking to critique their physique while making steady progression. So how is it possible to add muscle mass and not put on any fat? The answer is carb cycling.

Carb Cycling is an approach to eating that manipulates the amount of carbohydrates consumed on a given day. “By fluctuating macronutrients on a daily basis, we can ensure that performance and muscle building can be optimized on the days when it’s most important, while burning fat on the other days”(Starnes). The three possible days that we will utilize include “high carb” days, “medium carb” days and “low carb” days.

“High carb “days are utilized during the hardest training days. On these days, you want to feed your body a ton of carbs in order to put it in a highly anabolic state.

“Medium carb” days are utilized on training days that are less taxing on the body. On these days, the goal is to give your body just enough carbs to fuel your workout but not enough to put your body in a highly anabolic state. These days are maintenance days.

“Lower carb” days are utilized on your off days or days you are performing cardio or light conditioning. On these days, your primary goal is to burn fat. Since you are performing minimal activity, your body will not need carbohydrates. These days are fat burning days.

Now that we understand what carb cycling is and what variables must be manipulated, we need to know how many carbs we should put in our bodies on given days. Since we are varying our carbohydrates on certain days, our fat and protein intake will also vary. Here is an easy chart to follow. Please note that these numbers are based on grams per pound of body weight.

High day

Fat: minimal fat

Carbs: 2-3 grams

Protein: 1-1.25

Medium and low days

Fat: 0.15-0.35

Carbs: 0.5-1.5

Protein: 1.25-1.5

While I recommend you evenly spread out your carbohydrates, proteins and fats over the course of 5-8 meals, in the “real world” most people don’t have the time to count calories. NO WORRIES! If you follow these rules, you will not have to worry about counting calories.

-Have a complete breakfast everyday.

-Always eat veggies/fruit and lean protein with each meal.

-With the exception of breakfast, only eat starches (oatmeal, brown rice, baked potato, whole grain pasta, etc…) on medium and high carb days. Starches are your main source of carbohydrates and thus if you manipulate your starch intake you will manipulate your carbohydrate intake. To understand this fully please see the chart below:

Low Days- No starches! Only exception would be post workout shake after cardio or conditioning.

Medium Days- You will eat starches during your meal before your training session, during and post training, and than your first two meals following your training.

High Days- Eat starches with every meal. While this may seem like a lot of carbs, remember that these are your highly anabolic days. Check this out. If you weigh 200 lbs and you are suppose to take in 2-3 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight; that equals 400-600 carbs that day! The only feasible way to get in the necessary amount of carbohydrates is to constantly feed your body starches throughout the day.

In addition to bulking up, please note that carb cycling is a great approach for shedding body fat. While the principles remain the same, you will need to vary how many high days you have vs. low days. Obviously, bulking up will require more high days than if you were cutting. For newbie’s to carb cycling, I recommend you start with 3 high days a week, 2-3 moderate and 1-2 low days. After a couple weeks, you can critique these numbers depending on your goals and what works best for you. The benefit of using carb cycling during a cutting phase is that it allows you to decrease body fat without loosing any size.

Now that you know the secret to putting on lean muscle while maintaining body fat, it is time to take action! For those of you that are still confused, don’t worry about the macronutrient breakdown on high, low and medium days. Instead, focus on your starch intake. Lastly, remember to follow my 8 rules for getting the body you want. Stay tuned for my next article, as I will discuss optimal food selection.

Joe Meglio

Performance Enhancement Coach
www.MeglioFitness.com
www.MeglioNutrition.com
Joe@MeglioFitness.com

Sources:

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_nutrition/a_beginners_guide_to_carb_cycling

The Truth About Bulking Up

Bulking up Than Cutting Down: Smart or Dumb?

The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to bulking up is eating for size. Most gym rats divide their nutrition into a “bulking” phase and a “cutting” phase. The “bulking” phase is used to put on as much muscle as possible, while the “cutting” phase is used to strip all the excess fat off that was put on while “bulking”.

Unless you are a skinny bastard and need to gain over 20 lbs, there is a better approach to increasing lean muscle mass than using the conventional “sea food” diet to bulk up. Most natural trainees believe that they can put on 10 lbs of muscle in a month or even two months. Before I discuss a more sound approach to “bulking”, let’s see why natural trainees should not go on an all out bulking phase.

The problem with most “bulking” phases is that most trainees use the off season as an excuse to eat whatever they want. While it is true that if you are not consuming enough nutrients your muscle growth will be limited, natural trainees have a limited capacity to build muscle and the amount of muscle they can build is subject to their body's ability to synthesize new muscle tissue through their protein intake. This process, known as protein synthesis, is highly dependent on genetics and natural Testosterone levels, Testosterone to cortisol ratio, insulin sensitivity, and your muscle fiber makeup (slow twitch, fast twitch), along with other factors. Eating any amount of food you want will not change your protein synthesis limit naturally. In fact, by consuming more food than your body can handle, you will have an increase in body fat. (Thibaudeau 2006).

So how much muscle can we build in a month?

As I stated before the natural trainee is completely misguided when it comes to putting on muscle mass. By stepping on a scale and seeing a 10 lb increase in a month, they are convinced that the 10 lbs is all muscle. What they don’t realize is that an increase in muscle mass leads to an increase in water storage and glycogen. In reality, a natural trainee can only gain 1-2 lbs of dry muscle mass a month. The other 8 lbs is made up of fat, water storage and glycogen. The counter agreement to this by the trainee would be that they did not gain any fat. As Christian Thibaudeau has stated, there is a ''lean threshold” for men in which they will appear to look the same regardless of their body fat. For most men a lean threshold would be between 12-16% body fat. 10% would be considered pretty lean and over 18% would be considered fat. Anything in between is very vague and it is very hard to notice fat gains. Over a couple of months this could lead to an enormous increase in body fat with eventually noticeable differences in body fat.

Should we use the tradition bodybuilding method of bulking up and then cutting down or is there a better way to put on lean muscle mass?

By consuming a caloric surplus of just enough nutrients to promote lean muscle growth, you can gain around 1-2 pounds of dry muscle per month. When compared to the tradition bulking phase, the fat gains with this method will be minimal. Let’s take a look at this approach from a year long perspective. After a year you could gain anywhere from 12-24 lbs (1-2 lbs per month) of dry muscle and as little as 6-10 lbs of fat, water storage and glycogen.(Thibaudeau 2006). Like training, the key to increasing lean muscle mass is steady progression. It takes time, dedication and consistency. Do not use a tradition “bulking” phase as an excuse to eat like a fat bastard. Instead be consistent in your eating habits and gain muscle while minimizing fat! Stay tuned for part II of this article when I will discuss what methods to use for a clean bulking cycle.

Joe Meglio

Performance Enhancement Coach

Check us out on YouTube

Sources: T Muscle

So You Want to be Ripped?

8 Principles for Getting the Body YOU Want

The following guidelines are simple guidelines to follow, however for some reason most people fail to follow these rules and thus wonder why they cannot lose body fat. There is no magic bullet or supplement when it comes to loosing body fat but instead like most things in life it takes dedication and consistency. Now without any further ado:

1. Eat every 2-3 hours. This means you should be eating AT LEAST 5 meals a day and up to 8 meals. I do not want to hear you do not have time, because we both now that’s bullshit. Prepare your meals ahead of time! Plan meals for the times you know you will be on the go or at work.

2. Eat like a caveman. Avoid all processed and refined food, hence any food that comes out of a box or wrapper. If you need to be convinced by a commercial or an advertisement that a specific type of food is healthy, you must avoid it! Do you hear the media try and convince you that water, fruits and vegetables are healthy? No, this is because it is common knowledge and most people are looking for easier solutions than eating their greens. So what type of food would a caveman eat? Lean meat, eggs, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables. The list does not end here however it is a start!

3. Eat, lean protein, fruits and/or vegetables with each meal. Any meal that does not contain lean protein, vegetables and or fruit should be considered a cheat meal. Don’t cheat yourself!

4. Cycle your carbohydrates. First let me say if you need to lose 20 or more pounds diet down first before you cycle your carbs. Carb cycling is an excellent approach for anyone who is already pretty lean (10-12%BF) and is looking to lose those last 10 pounds that are covering their abs. In a nutshell, carb cycling divides each day of the week into either a low, medium or high carb day. Your activity level for each day will determine how many carbs you will take in. For more in dept information please check out this article from T Nation.

5. Drink only water. Cut out all soda, Gatorade, and any beverage with calories in it. Once you do this try to cut out all diet soda. Get use to drinking water!

6. Eat whole foods. Avoid consuming a ton of protein bars and shakes. There is a time and place for shakes (see below), but whole foods are the way to go.

7. Be sure to eat a big breakfast and consume a during and post workout shake. I mention breakfast, during workout/post workout shake, in the same rule because these are the times of day where our bodies can actually handle carbs. Upon waking, our muscles are desperate to take in large amounts of calories and are less likely to store carbs as fat. Furthermore having a big breakfast will speed up our metabolism for the rest of the day. The same goes for during and post workout. During this time our glycogen stores are shot and we need quick digesting carbs and protein to refuel and build muscle. For Post workout the best carbs include a combination of Dextrose and Maltodextrin or Waximaize. Personally I use Advocare Post Workout Recovery for during and post workout.).

8. Avoid mixing foods high in fat and carbs. The only time fat and carbs should be mixed is when the carbs are coming from fruits or vegetables. AVOID mixing starchy carbs with saturated fats at all times!

There is your list of 8 rules to follow. Until you follow all 8 rules there is no need to use a “fat burner” or to try and other magic diet. In reality, most people know how to lose body fat however they believe there is some sort of unknown secret. While I said these rules are simple to follow, simple does not mean easy. It takes a lot of dedication and consistency to reach your goals.

Joe Meglio

Performance Enhancement Coach
www.MeglioFitness.com
www.MeglioNutrition.com
Joe@MeglioFitness.com